The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-12-09
TALMAGEs SERMON.
King David's Thirst During q Bat
tie With the Philistinea.
Tho RcffesIsing Drau hit From the Well
Of Bethlehem Compared With the
Perpetual Joy Drawn From
the Well or the Gospel.

/
the Well Of the Gospsl.
Tho subject Of q recent sermon by Rsv.
I. De Witt TaImage at the Brooklyn Tab
'rnacle was "Thirst in a Cavern" pre-
dictated on the following text:
Oh, that one would give me drink Of the water
| Of the well of Bethlehem, which Is by the gate.
II. Samuel, xiii, Is.
| War. a'ways distressing, Is especially
ruinous in har vest time. When the crops
are all ready for the sickle, to have them
troddsn down by cavalry horses and
| heavy supply-trains outlying the fields,
| is enough to make any mans heart sick.
When this last grea. war broke ont in Eu-
rope, and France and Germany were com.
ing into horrid collision, I rod, across
their golden harvests and saw their tents
| pitched, and the trenches dug in the very
midst of the rips fields, the long scy the of
battle sharpening to NOW down harvest,
| Of men in great winrows OF the dead. 1t
was at this season of harvest that the
army of the Phiistines came down upon
Bethlehem. Hark to the clamor of their
voices. the neighiny of their chargers. the
blare of their trumpets, and the q ash of
their shi,lds!
lie. David and his men fall back! The
Lords host sometimes loses the day. But
David knew where to hide. He had been
brought up in that country. Boys are in
quisitive, and they know all about the
region where they were born and brought
up. If yor. should go back to the old home.
stead, yol. could, with your eyes shut, find
your way to the meadow, or the orchard,
or the hill back of the house, with which
you were familiar thirty or forty years
ago. So Eavid knew the cave at Aduliam-
Perhaps, in his boyhood days, he had
played ''hide-and-seek with his comrades
all about the old cave, and though others
might not have known il, David did.
Travellers say there is only one way Of
getting into that cave, and that is by q
very narrow path; but David was stout,
and steady-hendsd, and steady. nerved,
and so, with his three brave staff-officers,
ie goes along that path, finds his way
into the cave, sits down, looks around at
the roof and the dark passages of the
mountain, feels very weary with the
forced march; aud water he must have or
die.
do not know but there may have been
drops trckling down the side of the cav
ern, Or that there may have been some
water in the goat skin slung to his girdle,
but that was not what he wanted. He
wanted a deep, full, cold drink, such as a
man gets only out of an old we'll with
moss covered bucket. David remembered
that very near that cave Of Adullam there
was such well as that, well to which
he used to go in boyhood-:he we'll of
Bethlehem; and he almost imagines that
he can lear the liquid plash of that well.
and his parched tongue moves through hi,
hot lips as lie says: D..
Oh, that one would give me drink of the wa.
ter Ct the well of Bethlehem, which is by the
gate.
1t was no sooner said than done. The
three brave staff officers bound to their
feet and start. Brave soldiers will take
oven a hint from their commander.
But between them and the we'll
lay the host Of the Philistines; and what
could three men do with a great army?
Yet where there is a will there is a
way, and with their swords slashing this
way and that. they make their path TO
the well. While the Philistines are
amass at the seeming fOoihnrdiness of
these three men, and can not make up
their minds exactly what it means, the
three men have come to the vol. They
water. They pour it in tho pail. and then |
start for the cave. "Stop theml" cry the |
Philistines. "Clip them with your |
swords. Stab them with your spears. |
Step those three men," Too late. They |
have got around the hill. The hot rocks |
are spl ashed with the OVERLOOKING water |
from the vessel as it is carried up the !
cliffs. The three men go along tho dam |
wit oh hal
with tho excitement, and all out of breath |
In their haste. to the side of the cave, aud |
c:y out to David: "There, captain of the |
host, is what Won wanted, n drink of the !
well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate"
A text is OF no uso TO me unless can |
find Christ in it; and unless can bring n |
gospel out of these words, that will
arouse and comfort and bless, shall wish
had never seen them: for your time
would be wasted, and against my soul the
dark record would he made that this day
stood before agreat audience Of SHINING,
suffering aud dying men, and told them
of no rescue. BY the cross of the Son of |
God, by the throne of the eternal judg.
ment, that shall not be! May the Lord |
Jesus help me to tell you the truth to-
dayi
My friends, we come to-day around the
Gospel wsll. We put down our pack Of
burdens, and our implements OF toll. One
man must draw the waters for those who
have gathered aroand the well. will
try and draw tho water TO-DAY; and il,
after have poured out from this living
fountain for your soul, Just taste Of it
my self, you will not bs,rud ,e mo
A drink from the water OF the well Of Bethlc-
hem, which is by the gate.
The Gospel well, like tho we'll spoken OF
in the text, is a we'll of Bethlehem. David
had known hundreds OF wells Of water,
but he wanted to drink from that particu-
lar one, and he thought nothing could
Stake his thirst like that. And unless your
soul and mine can get access to the foun.
tain open for sin and uncleanness,
We must die. That fountain is the
we'll of Bethlehem. 1t was dug
in one night. It was dug by thu light of
q lantern-the star that hung down
over the manger. 1t was dug
not at the gate OF CAESARS
palaces, not in the park of a Jerusalem
bargain maker. 1t was dug in a barn.
The camels lifted their weary heads to
listen as the work went on. The shep-
herds, unable to sleep, because the heav.
ems were fillod with bands Of music. came
down to see the opening of the well. The
angels Of God, at the first gush of the liv.
ing water, dipped their chalices of joy
into it, and drank to the health O: earth
and Heaven, as they cried:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace.
Sometimes in our modern barns the
water is brought through the pipes Of the
city to the very nostrils Of the horses or
cattle; but this we'll in the Bethlehem harm
was not so much for the beasts that perish
as for OR race. thirSt.S mitfen. NoSprt. |